Suction cleaner



Mar.13,1923. f 1,448,349. H. W. HOOVER.

SUCTION CLEANER.

FILED SEPT. 10. |917. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1-.

im i 14 1A Atto? '755927,16'.

Mar. 13, 1923.-

H W HOOVER SUCTION CLEANER.

FILED SEP'LIO. 191?.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

25m/emular. .rerzl T/00pm,

Whe/@56,5% WW.

Patented Mar. 13, 1923..

UNTTED STATES A 41,448,349 PATENT OFFICE.

HERBERT W. HOOVER, OF NEW BERLIN, OHIO, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE HOOVER COMPANY, OF NORTH CANTON, OHIO, A CORPORATIONv OF OHIO.

SUCTION CLEANER.

Application led September 10, 1917. Serial No. 190,431.

To all whom z't may concern.'

l Be it known that I, HERBERT W. HOOVER, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Berlin, in the county of Stark and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Suc-tion Cleaners, of which the following is a. specification.

My Ainvention relates to suction cleaners and has amongst other things for its object to provide speed Vreducing means which shall contain two pulleys lying in the same plane and in a horizontal plane whereby the height of the machine is not increased and it furthe-r provides means whereby the brush driving parts are elastically held in operative relation and particularly it accomplished this latter result by the elasticity of the driving belt itself. Other objects will appear from time to time as the description proceeds.

I have illustrated my invention in connection with a suction cleaner of a familiar type, but it will be understood 4that it is applicable to any kind of cleaner Where a brush is used and motive power applied to drive the brush.

l trated in the accompanying drawings Wherei or proportion of parts.

I' supported in any desired manner in the casi .near the mouth.

n? do .not show the details' of its support. It is provided With4 a driving pulley D, in this case placed near the middle of "the brush and E is the belt by which thel brush is driven.

F is the motor casing, suitably mounted.

on the cleaner casing, and containing the motor G.

'The motor shaft H projects into the fan chamber N where it carries and drives lthe fan J, and on the lower ,y end `of this fan shaft is a driving hub or pulley The invention is illus in the partition which separates the dust and fan chambers, and in the dust chamber is a screw having the slotted head P, with a body l", a shoulder P2, to engage the lower surface ot' the partition or boss and the screw-threaded portion l3 to be received into the scre\v-thrcaded aperture in the boss 0. l4 is an anti-friction Washer between the head of thisscrew and the hub portion P5 ofthe arm Q.

By this means the arm Q is held pivotally in the position indica-ted. At its other end this arm is provided with a hub R, and is screw-threaded to receive the screwethreaded end R1 ofa screw which is provided with the shoulder R2, the body R3, the slotted head R4, and the friction washer R5. 0n the body ot' this screw is mounted the belt pulley S, and rotatable therewith the friction drive wheel S1. T, T are the forward supporting Wheels arranged in any desired manner, details not here shown, and U, U are the rear driving Wheels in like manner here illustrated 'without adjustable details such as are commonly used.

V is the outlet passageway.

Referring to the modification shown, the hub K engages a wheel W which is pivoted on an arm. VI, in turn pivoted at W2 to the casing. This arm has a stop W3 which engages the end of a set screw W". lV is a spring secured to the arm and to the casing and placed so as to tend to swing the arm on its pivot and force the Wheel WV against the hub K. The driving belt `is in this -case driven from a pulley VV" concentric with the Wheel YV.

It will be understood that I' have shown somewhat diagrammatically' the general structure and also modifications of my device and do not Wish to be limited to the particular size, shape, proportion and arrangen'ient of the parts, as these or some of theml can 'be altered Without departing from the spirit of my invention.

It will be noted that the two pulleys are in one 'and the same plane and that they are arranged in a horizontal plane and the belt pulley is also arranged in an adjacent horlllU l zontal plane.

I ficlties and .necessities l have invented the If the shaft is tilted, then, of course, these pulleys would be tilted; and thus the plane could depart from the horizontal but in any other case it would be perpendicular to the motor shaft.

By operating the screw W4 the pulleys may be separated by swinging arm W1 to one side and thus the driving connection between the brush and the motor may be broken. This might be desirable from time to time and might particularly be desirable when the converter is to be used. By converter T mean the connection which is used when the inlet mouth adjacent the brush is not used and some other device is provided'y for use usually on some other than the floor surface O r floor covering. T have not shown any such mechanism in connection with the device illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 but it will be understood that 4in like manner means could be employed to separate the speed reduction pulleys there if desired. That means could be similar to what is illustrated in Fig. 3. This might also' be desirable under certain circumstances where and when the brush was no longer needed. In this case by separating and locking in separated position the speed reduction and power transmission pulleys the brush would be stopped and the motor will tend to speed up the fan thus-taking a larger volume of air through the apparatus.

The use and operation of my invention are as follows v When suction cleaners are provided with driving brushes and means and motors for driving such brushes, a good deal of diflicultyis encountered from various causes. The fan must be driven at a high rate of speed. The brush should be driven from the same motor at a much lower rate of speed. The bearings give a greatdeal of trouble. On accountl vof these and other dife means here illustrated. Where a friction drive isemployed in such a suction cleaner the separable parts of the driving mechanism will permit dust and dirt and foreign objects to pass therethrough, the parts slmply separating enough to permit such pasand being yieldingly held they are im is of course highly desirable to minimize the mechanism in such an appliance, hence prefer to use the elastic belt which is necessary in a belt driven brush to yieldingly l hold the driving partsytogether.. llf, as is here illustrated, -a reduction drive is produced, and the parts are properly proportioned, one result which is desirable flows from my invention in addition to those .re-v

sults which have been previously suggested. lf the belt breaks or escapes from its pulley, all the transmitting mechanism is stopped except of course the motor shaft.

meente This immediately takes the A'load of the brush and driving mechanism off the motor,

whereupon the latter speeds up for the puring parts could be as desired. The friction l drive wheel associated with the pulley lcan be supported in any desired manner. V Tt ispreferably supported so that it will be on the opposite side of the driving shaft from the brush, and it is also preferably supported on a swinging arm which could be enclosed within the casing. 0f course various otherdevices could be utilized to support this friction pulley and it could be easily arranged so that the belt could run.i

open instead of twisted.

In the structure of Fig; 3, as previously ex lained, the driven wheel is 'elastically he d by meansother than the belt against the driving wheel or hub.

I call attention further to the fact that t-he bearings in the friction wheel and driving pulley are preferably oilless wood bearings the object being to avoid the use of oil if possible or if found always desirable in a structure wherez the bea-rings are working in or adjacent to an vatmosphere heavily charged with dust.

ll claim: v

1. ln a Suction cleanerlthe combination of a. casing, a brush, a driving means including a shaft, a.n'-elastic driving belt for tliebrush,-

means for connecting the driving means with the belt comprising one friction wheel on the shaft of the driving means, and one friction wheelassociated with a pulley and mova'bly mounted whereby the elasticity of the belt alone yieldingly holds the friction wheels operatively together, the driving shaft friction wheel being mounted between the other friction vwheel and the brush.

2. lln a suction cleaner the combination of a casing, a brush rotating on a horizontal axis, a driving means including avertical shaft an elastic driving belt for the brush, means for connecting the driving means with, the 'belt com rising friction ll' driving devices, one on the s aft of the driving means, the other movable toward' the shaft but on the side opposite the brush, the two vfriction' drivingvdevicesbeing in the same horizontal plane, and a belt pulley associated wi such movable friction devices whereby the elasticity -or the belt, alone yieldingly holds the driving devices operatively together.

3. 4lin a suction cleaner the'combination of a casing, albrush, a driving means including a shaft, an elastic driving belt for the brush,l

a driving wheel on the shaft of the driving means, a driving' wheel and belt pulley mounted on a. pivoted arm so as to be movable toward the shaft whereby the elasticity of the belt alone yieldingly holds the. drivin; r wheels operatively together, the friction wheel ou the driving shaft located between the brush and the movable friction wheel.

l. ln a suction-sweeper, the combination, with a. fan-shaft and'a. brush, of a drivemember on the. fan-shaft; a friction-wheel niovably supported so that it may be moved towards and from the drive-member; and

beli-and-pulley connections between the friction-wheel and the brush, the belt being of elastic material and extending in a direction such that its tension tends to draw the friction wheel into engagement with the drivemember.

tion-wheel and a brush, the belt being of elastic material and extending in a, direction such that its tension tends to draw the friction-wheel into engagement with the drivemember and means for drawing the friction wheel out of contact with the drive member against the tension of the belt.

6. In a suction cleaner, the combination of a casing, a rotating brush therein providedwith a pulley', a driving-shaft, a' frictionwheel on said driving-shaft, a bodily-movable friction Wheel and pulley, an elastic-belt connecting said pulleys and tending to keep the said wheels in contact, and means for moving the bodily-movable wheel out of contact with the other wheel against the tension of the belt. y

In testimony whereof, I aix my signature in the presence of two witnesses this 28th day of August 1917.

HERBERT W. HOOVER.

lWitnesses: ESTA STONER,

LAvIoRA M. GRAY. 

